Schools closed, buses cancelled by freezing rainstorm
CBC
Wednesday's icy forecast has cancelled all but a few school buses and closed some schools entirely across eastern Ontario and western Quebec.
Freezing rain is expected to start early in the morning and last most of the day, leading to orange-level warnings about the dangers for the Ottawa-Gatineau area including likely utility outages and property damage.
Non-essential travel is not recommended.
By about 6 a.m., the storm was hitting western parts of the region such as Pembroke and Bancroft. Ice and rain started falling on downtown Ottawa around 8:30 a.m.
All schools are closed in western Quebec and Renfrew County. There are also school closures north of Kingston-Belleville and for some private schools in the Outaouais.
Algonquin College has cancelled in-person classes Wednesday morning.
The only school buses that are running are in the Kingston-Belleville area, where there is a rainfall warning instead.
Check with your school or board for information on what happens when there are no buses or classes.
The Ottawa International Airport Authority said at 5:45 a.m. Wednesday that about 50 flights had been cancelled. Via Rail says weather delays are possible between Kingston and Quebec City.
As of 10 a.m. there were no widespread local power outages. About 2,000 customers didn't have power in the Bancroft area.
There are more cancellations at the bottom of this story.
Environment Canada is forecasting two to three centimetres of freezing rain Wednesday for an area from Gatineau north to Maniwaki and east to the Montreal area.
The rest of western Quebec and northern eastern Ontario, including Ottawa, could get one or two centimetres of freezing rain under their warnings.
That amount of freezing rain falling does not necessarily mean that's how much ice will build up, according to Environment Canada.
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